


Tony's Inebriation

by animelaina



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, Drunkenness, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Male Slash, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 18:05:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11213385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animelaina/pseuds/animelaina
Summary: Tony arrives at the Tower late one night, utterly drunk. Apparently, there's no one else available in the tower to help Steve with the task of handling inebriated Tony.





	Tony's Inebriation

Steve settled down in his favourite chair in the lounge – it had been a long day of Coulson chasing him for a mountain worth of paperwork after he returned from his latest SHIELD mission. He was ready for a nice cup of tea and some time with his sketchbook before going to bed. Eyes fixated on the view outside the Stark tower, he began to sketch the outline of Manhattan deftly on the smooth paper. 

“Sir just arrived home, and I believe he requires assistance,” Jarvis cuts in through Steve’s moment of silence. He groaned loudly. This tower was constantly busy, them being saviours of the universe, and it wasn’t easy to get a moment of peace, especially with the combination of Barnes and Barton. 

“Isn’t there anyone else?” Steve grumbled to himself.

“I’m afraid not, Mister Rogers,” Jarvis replied evenly. 

Putting down his sketchbook, Steve walked hurriedly to the lift and went down to the lobby of Stark Tower, where he saw an inebriated Tony stumbling around, hands flailing wildly. Steve pressed the based of his palm to his forehead, before gripping Tony’s arms tightly and helping him stand properly. “Never thought your star spangled ass bothered about me,” Tony whispered drunkenly. Steve huffed a sound of annoyance before decidedly ignoring his comment. 

“Weren’t you with Pepper?” Steve asked, internally wishing that she would do something about this drunk mess instead of leaving it to him, but feeling a sense of doubt as Pepper was as high up as Coulson on the responsibility scale. She wouldn’t leave the life of Stark Industries to wander home himself drunk, as a girlfriend or as the CEO of the entire company. 

Instead of replying, Tony pushed his arm away, and clumsily got down on one knee in front of Steve. Steve’s patience was wearing thin – it wasn’t his job to take care of Tony, and drunk Tony was even worse than blabbering, talkative and belligerent Tony.

“I love you,” Tony crooned, while swaying unstably from side to side. “Marry me?” 

So that’s what happened. Or at least, in Steve’s assumptions. Tony probably asked Pepper to marry him, with a fancy, huge and pompous marriage proposal and Pepper turned him down. His ego probably couldn’t deal with the hit, which was odd since it was Tony fucking Stark, and he was the most likely out of all the Avengers to get a rash from commitment. He seemed really down about the rejection though, and even got himself dead drunk. Steve sighed, feeling sorry for him, and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him up from his knees. 

“Let’s get you to bed,” Steve said softly, and helped Tony to the lift. When it reached the right level, he walked out to see Clint standing in the doorway, holding a cup of Starbucks. 

“What happened?” Clint asked seriously.

“Nothing much. Tony just got drunk. I think it’s because he got rejected by Pepper or something. He was muttering something about “I love you” and “marry me” in the lobby. And you should have helped if you weren’t sleeping and you were in the tower,” Steve grumbled. 

“I wasn’t in the tower. I was bored out of my mind, and I really wanted Starbucks, so I shot an arrow to the nearest building with Starbucks and ziplined my way there. Also, I have no idea why you’re saying Pepper rejected Tony because he dumped her like 5 weeks ago when you were on the SHIELD mission,” Clint retorted. 

Steve was stunned for a moment at this new turn of events. Clint watched him like a hawk, wondering how he would take the news. 

“I’m just going to put him in his room now,” Steve replied shortly, no other indications on what he thought about Tony’s sudden change in relationship status. Clint shrugged, and walked over to the entrance to Tony’s quarters, his arms crossed as he looked at Steve curiously.

“Why are you looking at me?” Steve asked with a twinge of annoyance as he helped Tony lie on the bed, and sat at the corner, looking at Clint.

“I never knew Captain America could be so dense. Get your head out of your star-spangled ass and think. Why would Tony break up with Pepper?” 

“Maybe he wanted to revert back to his playboy lifestyle. It’s none of my business.” 

“Why would Jarvis specifically ask you to help Tony when everyone else isn’t sleeping in the tower? We all know who created Jarvis. Tony obviously likes you, and you obviously like him too.”

“We argue all the time, we never see eye to eye, what makes you think that we like each other? We’re just – save-the-universe partners.” 

“Every time you guys argue, you guys seem like you are going to yell and then have really angry make up sex. Everyone in the tower knows it. Even Tony knows it. Pep agreed to a breakup because she could see that Tony obviously wants you and not her.” 

“You’re ridiculous. You obviously like him, but you just stop yourself from liking him, and none of us know why. If it’s because you represent America and orange cheeto guy who happens to be America’s president is against gay marriage, then you are a lot more stupid than I take you for.”

“It’s because - I don’t like him, seriously,” Steve said with a slight blush on his cheeks. 

“The entire tower is sick of your staring at him at breakfast, lunch, dinner, on missions, everywhere. Honestly, maybe before this you didn’t want to ruin his relationship with Pep, but he dumped her because of you. What else is stopping you?”

Steve stared down at his toes, in deep thought, his fists clenched together in a tight grip. 

“Don’t tell me it’s because you’re a Hydra agent.” 

“What? Don’t tell me you believe that nonsense Deadpool said about a group of people controlling our fates and the one called Nick Spencer wrote some shit about me being a Hydra agent,” Steve said incredulously with half a smile on his face that loosened up the tension in the room.

“Deadpool is too crazy for me and Bucky, which is crazy considering that we’re pretty crazy. But there’s no other reason I can think of, honestly,” Clint countered.

Steve glanced at the digital clock on Tony’s bedside table. 1am, and he suddenly felt like telling Clint all about his insecurities which was weird. Not only because it’s not in his character to open up, but because it was Clint. Honestly. The Clint that was allergic to seriousness. 

“You can just tell me if you want to, you know. Tony’s passed out and there’s no one else. I know I don’t seem very intelligent, but it’s just tiring to have to comply to expectations of some form of intelligence, and I don’t want Coulson forcing me to do all the paperwork and help Tony in sciency shit if he realised I was smart enough for 5 PhDs.”

“We’re Avengers. Our job is to save the world and honestly – we might lose each other any time. I don’t want to go into a relationship with that fear looming over me. I lost my best friend in the line of fire, and I watched as he fell off a snow mountain. I don’t want to go through that entire thing again, honestly. And I don’t want to turn into a hero that prioritises saving his boyfriend over the life of civilians,” Steve replied. 

“That’s stupid. Just because you’re a superhero doesn’t mean you don’t get to fall in love and enjoy happiness. I mean, by that logic, Thor shouldn’t be dating Jane, I shouldn’t be dating Bucky, and Nat shouldn’t be dating Bruce. But if you think about it, these relationships bring a lot more cohesion to the group. We work better together in missions because we know each other better. Less like colleagues, more like family. Plus, if Tony were in danger, we all know you’ll save him over civilians whether or not he’s your boyfriend, so that’s an invalid argument.” 

“I probably shouldn’t look down on your intelligence – you actually say pretty sane stuff occasionally.” 

“It’s a secret – don’t let others know. I can already feel the expectations coming on and I might just zipline away forever. Anyway, I think I’ve been third wheeling way too long here, so I’m going to just leave now.” Clint turns around, and starts to walk away, before he looks back and mouths to Steve – “He needs you.”

With that last statement, Clint sauntered away, and Steve heard the sound of his footsteps slowly fade away. He stood up, brushed his knees, and walked over to the front of the bed, and covered the blanket over Tony, before running his fingers through those dark brown curls. Oh god, what was he doing? Stepping over the invisible ‘bro’ line into the romance line. Suddenly, he felt a tight grip on his wrist and he was shocked, before realising it was Tony. Anxiety shot through him like adrenaline on a mission – did Tony hear anything? 

The position he had, leaning over Tony – it reminded him of a year ago, when Loki was messing up planet Earth with his powers and the Chitauri, and Tony nearly died. At that time, he was bent over Tony like this, while Tony was in the suit, laying on the floor, nearly dead. He was so frightened. Fear was coursing through his veins, as he saw Tony there, barely breathing. He had never experienced that kind of fear, even when he crashed the plane into the Arctic and thought that he would never get out alive. 

He was jolted out of the flashback as Tony tightened his grip on his wrist, and suddenly pulled Steve down, and their lips pressed against each other. His lips felt so warm and soft – it reddened Steve’s cheeks, and he quickly pulled back. Maybe he was still pretty stuck in the 1940s, and kissing when they weren’t even together seemed a bit too liberal. Steve mentally chided himself. He was acting like a lovesick and shy teenager. That look would be okay on a youth, not a full grown 220lbs symbol of America. 

“I heard what you said, Capsicle,” Tony whispered softly, half awake with heavy lidded eyes. Steve huffed in annoyance at his own feelings. Stupid Clint, making him pour out his heart in front of Tony at 1am in the morning. His life suddenly sounded like a romance soap opera and he wasn’t used to the genre change from action and thriller. 

“You just heard wrongly, Tony, go to bed.”

Tony smiled. “Always so stubborn. I like that.” 

That made Steve huff even more in annoyance, and he stalked off to sit down on a couch in the corner of Tony’s bedroom, before closing his eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep.

***

Steve awoke to bright sun shining in through the windows, and Tony sitting at the corner of his bed, a cup of coffee in one hand, a Starkpad in another.

“Oh, Steve, you’re awake?” 

“Yeah. How are you not hungover?” 

“A cup of coffee a day keeps the hangovers away. Haven’t you heard of that quote? It’s quite famous,” Tony replied, eyes still on the Starkpad. “Anyway, thanks a lot for carrying me up last night. It was pretty late last night, so I guess you crashed on my couch. Sorry, man.”

“You… Don’t remember anything?” 

“What. Am I supposed to remember anything? Don’t tell me we had sex, Capsicle, if you want to prank me with that kind of joke, at least wait till my 6th cup of coffee, seriously.”

He doesn’t remember.

“Oh, it’s – it’s nothing.” 

Steve didn’t know what to feel. On one hand, he was pretty happy that he wouldn’t have to explain everything he said, and that there wouldn’t be any awkwardness if Tony didn’t know about his feelings. He would just continue being Captain America, and Tony would continue being Iron Man. Save-the-universe partners, just like what he said. He didn’t want to just be that though. He wanted more, especially now that he knew Tony felt the same way. 

“I’m just going to go to the communal level for breakfast now,” Steve said awkwardly, rubbing his palm on the back of his neck. Tony gave him a suspicious glance. Of course, Steve thought to himself, Tony isn’t easy to fool. He turned around and walked out quickly, trying not to look like he was fleeing the room. 

“J, send the video recording of my room last night to my Starkpad now,” Tony said aloud. 

“Gladly, Sir,” Jarvis replied with a smug tone. If he had a physical body, he would probably have a big smirk on his face, not unlike Clint. 

Steve walked to the doorway, and entered the empty lift of Stark Tower. He watched as the lift doors closed, before he paced around in circles in the lift worriedly, staring at his reflection in the mirror and wondering how he could spill out everything to Clint with Tony (albeit drunk) there. 

The lift doors opened, and Steve turned around to see Tony standing there. He forgot to press the lift button for the communal level, and he mentally yelled himself for being a tragic mess, all in front of Tony. 

Tony was looking at him, Starkpad in one hand with the video of the lift on the screen. 

“Apologies, Mister Rogers. I took the liberty of showing Sir the video of you pacing in the lift, as I thought it was appropriate for him to get a clearer understanding of the situation,” Jarvis said, not sounding apologetic at all. In fact, a little too smug for Steve’s liking. 

“Tony, I can explain, it isn’t what you think,” Steve said hurriedly. 

“It is what I think,” Tony replied shortly before he strode into the lift, and tiptoed to kiss Steve on the lips, wrapping his arm around his neck. Steve was stunned, and his arms remained limply at his sides as he slowly kissed Tony back. Tony’s moustache tickled, but it was a nice feeling. He could feel the arc reactor pressed up against his chest, cold metal against his own warm beating heart. Tony’s warm hands were creeping up his neck, and his fingers curled up in the shining blond hair. 

They kissed heatedly, as Steve pressed Tony against the wall of the lift, and all the level buttons lit up a bright blue. As they pressed their lips to each other urgently, after eons of bickering and unresolved sexual tension, the lift door opened and Bucky was standing right outside. 

“Seriously Tony, I know this tower is entirely your property and we shouldn’t complain since we don’t pay rent, but I don’t want to see you snogging my best friend at 8am in the morning!”

**Author's Note:**

> AN: It's my first fic, I tried really hard to write it well :) Do leave comments below if you like my fic <3


End file.
